Stage 1 report on Mental Health (Scotland) Bill published

The Scottish Parliament Health and Sport Committee has published its Stage 1 Report on Mental Health (Scotland) Bill, reporting to the Parliament on the general principles of the Bill.

The Mental Health (Scotland) Bill was introduced into the Scottish Parliament on 19th June 2014 by Alex Neil, then Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing. Following the Bill's introduction, the Health and Sport Committee issued a call for evidence, which received 59 submissions in total.

Together responded to the call for evidence, urging the Health and Sport Committee to ensure the Bill fulfils its potential by taking the following steps:

A Child Rights Impact Assessment should be carried out on the draft Mental Health (Scotland) Bill, to systematically and fully consider its impact on children and young people.

The Bill should take account of the rights of all children, including those with mental health needs as well as those affected by the mental health needs of their parents, carers or siblings.

The Bill should include preventative measures to avoid children from developing more serious mental health problems later in life. It should be used as an opportunity to address the difficulties many children and young people face in accessing Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

The Stage 1 report does not make specific reference to these three key areas. Together will continue to raise the above key points during further scrutiny of the Bill. The Stage 1 debate will take place in the Chamber before the end of February 2015. You can keep updated regarding this debate on the Together website and Twitter page, @together_sacr.

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Together is an alliance of Scottish children's charities that improves the awareness, understanding and implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We do this by: promoting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; helping children's organisations to integrate the Convention into their work; monitoring and reporting on the progress made at a Scottish, UK and UN level.